Loading the diesel for break-in

[wscott]

I tow with my CTD about half the miles appied. When I do tow I pull a toy hauler with weight of about 7500 loaded down with toys and supplies. I also have a 100gal. aux fuel tank in the bed that keep it pretty close to full for now for break-in purposes. Just curious what would be the mininum amount weight needed for effective and efficient break-in. Thanks in advance for your input.

 

[krabman]

I forget now what the milage is your supposed to wait before towing but Im thinking it was 500. Your load is fine for break in purposes, these engines have softer liners than a typical commercial diesel and ring seat isnt much of an issue. The more load the sooner you will be broken in.

 

[wscott]

Thanks Krabman, But what I'm really looking for is an amount of weight that I need to carry in the bed during the time I'm not towing to help expedite break-in for that other 50% of the time I'm not towing.

 

[krabman]

The more load the quicker you will get broke in, towing or not. No matter how much you carry and tow you will still be seeing some improvement into 5 digit milage. The first few hours of operation are by far the most crucial during break-in and as the hours add up any kind of special break-in operation becomes less important and after a time pointless. The truck will break-in without any extra load, it will just take longer. As I said ring seal is really not an issue with these trucks and outside of that a good portion of your break-in occurs simply by keeping the wheels turning, loaded or not.

 

[Rosco]

wscott, I have a 800 pound dump insert installed in my 03' and I tow a landscape trailer that weighs about 3000 pounds 2-3 times a week averaging 10-20 towing miles on those given days. Also, I haul weight in my dumper such as grass clippings, mulch and topsoil which can add around 2500 pound or so.



Now to help answer your question. In my application I noticed what appeared to be a increase in power and a definate improvment in mileage at about 3,500 miles. This mileage was reached last week and it was like someone threw a switch to give my truck more power.



Like the others said, every truck is different so depending on the load and driving style you may have different result's.

 

[JWhitcomb]

I carried around about 4000 pounds of water for 500 miles. I have no idea if if helped to break it in but I gave it a shot. Then purchased a 5000 pound camper and have it on most of the time.



If you do the water thing make sure you have the containers full. Otherwise it will try to crow hop across the street when you stop and it sloshes.